There is no lonelier position on a football field than cornerback.
It’s not a position for players with faint hearts or long memories.
Cornerbacks have to be fearless and have a little bit of swag. Fortunately for Saratoga High senior Nolan Chao, he has both.
This is a kid, after all, who didn’t know how to ice skate before he started playing hockey, had never played football before trying out his freshman year and wore a pink tuxedo to his junior prom. That’s right, pink.
“If Nolan wants something, he’s the most determined kid you’ve ever met,” said his mother Corrine Chao. “There’s just a fire inside of him. When he played hockey he’d have to get up at 5 a.m. and he’d get up with a smile on his face and just say ‘let’s go.’ He’s the same way in football.”
Chao was a quick study in ice hockey, learning to skate and then rising to the level of Triple-A hockey as a 14-year-old where he played for the Junior Sharks and traveled around the country competing.
Chao’s parents Roy and Corrine didn’t want him playing football when he was young but allowed him to try out as a freshman.
“As a freshman they weren’t letting him (on the field) because they knew he was playing hockey,” Corrine said. “Then they made the mistake of putting him out there and he scored a touchdown. Now I’m surprised at the things he does, but I don’t know why because he keeps doing them.”
Chao’s 3-yard touchdown run late in Saratoga’s non-league opener last Friday night against Half Moon Bay narrowed the Cougars’ lead to 27-26. Unfortunately for the Falcons, they missed the two-point conversion and lost. Still, it was an impressive effort against a team that was a section champ last season.
Chao did his part, excelling at cornerback while covering Half Moon Bay star receiver Hayden Von Almen and rushing for 43 yards and one score to almost lift the Falcons to victory.
As a cornerback, Chao knows fear is not part of the equation.
“I believe I have ability as a corner and even though I’m out there on an island, I have the mindset that I’m not going to let my guy get the ball – that he’s not better than me and I’m going to shut him down,” Chao said.
Though Chao’s frame (6 feet, 165 pounds) is more suited to hockey, he relishes playing high school football with the friends he’s known his whole life.
“It’s family and we have a brotherhood and I think I’ll carry the values I’m learning into real-life situations in college and my adult life,” Chao said.
He seems well-equipped for the next step, boasting a 3.2 grade point average while currently playing two sports (football and lacrosse).
The Saratoga teen of Chinese and Caucasian descent also doesn’t lack for confidence off the field, as displayed by the previously mentioned snazzy suit he rocked at last year’s prom.
“Nolan was fascinated by the ‘Great Gatsby’ which he read in school and decided he wanted to wear a pink suit like Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie,” Corrinne said. “So he ordered one online and we didn’t know it but it was coming from the Middle East.”
The tux didn’t arrive until the day before the prom and it didn’t fit correctly. Somehow, Corrinne managed to get it altered and pressed by a dry cleaner in less than two days, just in time for Chao to make his big splash at the dance.
“He carried it off,” Corrinne said. “He just has that confidence – that he can be the only one in the room with a pink suit and he can own it."
